Sunday, March 22, 2009

I don't know anything about the World Baseball Classic, don't care which players are on which team, or who won or lost. But as I was flicking around the channels the other night, I came upon a World Baseball Classic game between the USA and Puerto Rico. Before I had a chance to continue on to the next channel, my wife asked: "USA vs. Puerto Rico? How is that possible? Isn't Puerto Rico part of the United States??"

Good question. If you can fly there and back without a passport, if the Stars & Stripes flies over their buildings, if the rumble in "West Side Story" is on both the Jets' and the Sharks' home turf, then how can the US vs. Puerto Rico be considered anything but an intra-squad scrimmage?

Come to think of it, the District of Columbia isn't a state, either. Perhaps the Washington Nationals should have been allowed to play in the WBC.